


somewhere over the rainbow

by HaloRocks1214



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Bad Parenting, Child Abuse, Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Crying, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Family Dynamics, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, IRL Fic, No Beta We Die Like Wilbur in Skyblockle, Platonic Affection, Platonic Cuddling, Protective Older Brothers, Running Away, Self-Esteem Issues, Sleepy Bois Inc Angst, The Funniest Minecraft Video Ever is therapy for me /hj, TommyInnit Angst (Video Blogging RPF), a whole hecking lot, also 70-90 percent of this fic is just sap and dream being the cool older cousins/brothers to toms, and a lil bit of, and have the unfortunate consequence of being in a fandom that loves, but there is a little bit of that, haha managed to sneak that in didnt i, i just want them to know how deeply sorry i am, if tommy's parents ever see how ooc we make them in these fics, im sure theyre amazing people irl, in the background because ITS ME what did you expect aklfdjksf, listen i miss cc!dream and cc!tommy hanging out dude, this is your daily reminder that cc!dream would be the first to punt c!dream thank you and goodnight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29338872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaloRocks1214/pseuds/HaloRocks1214
Summary: Tommy sent at 4:49 AMhey im really realy raelly sorry fro bothering yuo but im kinda stuck ni florida with no wehre to goSapnap and Dream have seen plenty of fics where The Dream Team accidentally acquire a baby through various reasons, and obviously, that doesn't make them fit to be parents by a long shot. But could some of them at least have been about a teenager or two so they had an idea on how to handlethis?
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Sapnap & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Comments: 172
Kudos: 1651
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	somewhere over the rainbow

**Author's Note:**

> oooo pspspsps you wanna use suspension of disbelief for some parts of this fic so badly oooo pspspsps
> 
> i know there are some things here logically that could probably never work in the real world but shhhh family dynamics okay, let me have this (also covid just doesnt exist here thanks)

_**Tommy sent at 4:49 AM:**  
hey im really realy raelly sorry fro bothering yuo but im kinda stuck ni florida with no wehre to go_

Dream had to stare at his phone for a solid minute. There were a number of things in that one message that required questions, but he had just woken up and his brain was mush. Questions would have to wait until after at least five energy drinks.

_**Dream sent at 4:51 AM:**  
like actually? are your parents not with you? how do you travel entire continents by yourself, im very curious_

Dream meant it as a light-hearted jab, something he was familiar with in his relationship between him and Tommy, but the first message he got back made him sit straight up in his bed in a panic, rushing to fix his mistake. There was no longer a need for energy drinks, he was wide awake now.

_**Tommy sent at 4:51 AM:**  
right rgiht sorry i didnt mean to bother you wiht sutpid shit i can figure ti out msyelf srory_

_**Dream sent at 4:51 AM:**  
no no no its fine tommy!!!! sorry, i meant it as a joke i swear. youre seriously in florida alone with no place to go?_

Dream started biting his nails when it took Tommy a second to respond. He was about to run out and start airport hopping, pants be damned, to find the kid if he really was in danger, but Tommy did eventually respond, saving Dream from a future nail care appointment. He got out of bed to go find Sapnap as he typed his response.

_**Tommy sent at 5:55 AM:**  
yeah_

_**Dream sent at 5:56 AM:**  
thats a okay. mind telling me where youre at so i dont look like a dumbass screaming his head off in a random airport?_

Dream reached the edge of Sap’s bed when Tommy gave him a name and a location. He sent a really quick _be there soon_ type message before setting the phone down on the bedside drawer and shaking his friend’s shoulder like a kid on Christmas morning, “Niiiiick Nick Nick Nick Sapnap Sapnap Sap Sap Sap Sappitus wake up wak-”

He was rudely cut off by a pillow smacking him square in the face. Sapnap perched up on one arm before dropping the pillow in his other hand to rub his eyes, “What.”

Dream also rubbed the bridge of his nose while feigning minor offense. Realizing that wasn’t getting through his upset not-morning friend (which, valid, he felt the same way before he could feel Tommy was practically on the verge of tears through their messages), he jumped straight to the point, “Tommy is stuck at Sanford International by himself and needs a place to stay. I could go pick him up myself but I didn’t want to so I decided to torture you into coming with.”

And here Dream thought _his_ sitting up was quick. Sapnap practically shot out of bed after his friend and raced to grab a pair of pants and a nice pair of shoes as the two of them walked to Dream’s room so the older could do the same, “What? You mean like Tommy Innit? Here? In America?”

Dream rolled his eyes as he stepped into his tennis shoes by his doorway, “No, I mean Thomas from my science lab in 12th Grade.”

Sapnap froze halfway into putting a shoe on while standing up, clearly confused, “Wait, really?”

Dream opened his mouth to respond, but then snapped it shut because he wasn’t a dick, “Shit, sorry, sarcasm doesn’t translate with morning brain, my bad. Yeah, no, it’s Tommy Toms from the great land of Britain itself.”

Sapnap leaned on the doorframe and crossed his arms as he watched Dream slide on a pair of pants, “Holy shit. Uh, how and why?”

As Dream walked past him to head to the driveway, he shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know, man, but it’s definitely serious. Even though it was text message-only I could tell the kid was pretty freaked.”

Dream opened the door to the outside and started walking out. Meanwhile, Sapnap didn’t even hesitate to grab the keys, both house and car, before he followed, “Damn, hope he’s okay.”

It was silent until they got to their car and Sapnap unlocked it. As Dream got in and buckled up, the only thing he could say was, “Me too.”

\---

It was just before sunrise when Sapnap pulled into the pick-up roundabout and parked, Dream sending _we’re here, sign 5_ to Tommy and rolling down the window so he could see when the kid came up. He looked back down at his phone momentarily when he felt it ping.

_**Tommy sent at 6:03 AM:**  
wait what does we mean_

Dream grimaced at the knowledge that he forgot to mention he brought Sapnap with him, but right before his thumbs brought up his keyboard, Sapnap yelled out his window, “Hey, Tomathy! Glad to see you in one... piece…”

Dream had to look up once Sap’s proclamation started dying off and nearly gasped at the state the kid was in. There wasn’t any sort of physical injury on him, and he didn’t seem to be thin from malnutrition, but his eyes were bright red, old tear tracks still on his face as if he didn’t feel like wiping them away. The reason they knew Tommy wasn’t thin was that the hoodie he had on him was thin enough for him. Minor trembles shook his shoulders, and Dream honestly couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or his apparent emotional breakdown. All he brought with him in terms of luggage was one lonely gym bag stuffed to the brim, a sock sticking out of a small hole in the zipper.

Before either adult could say _what the hell,_ Tommy spoke up, quickly shoving his phone in his hoodie pocket, panic just barely not hidden in his voice, “Oh sh-shit, I completely forgot why Twitter lost its shit a few weeks ago, you guys were staying in the same house. Fuck, I d-didn’t mean to get in the middle, you g-guys can just-”

“Tommy Tommy Tommy!” Sapnap gently interrupted from- from outside the car? Blinking a few times, that was when Dream looked over to realize Sapnap had gotten out of his seat (the door was even left open) and walked over to Tommy himself. Dream looked back out his window to see his friend lay his hands on Tommy’s shoulders as if he were calming a startled horse, “Hey, it’s okay dude. I always love getting in a little sunrise driving from time to time.”

_Liar, you almost shaved my head bald last time I woke you up before seven,_ but Dream elected to keep that a secret. Lord knew the kid didn’t need any more reason to want to skitter off like a wild animal. Even Dream had to admit that Orlando wasn’t the safest place for teens, let alone scared teens on the run from something.

Dream shuddered. It was fine, Tommy was with people he trusted. They might know fuck all of what to do, but Tommy was at least safe with them. It gave them plenty of time and reason to find what caused this and figure out how to go beat it up. What sends a child into a frenzy so bad they feel the need to go and switch entire countries?

Before he could ponder any reason himself, the door to the seat behind him opened and a gym bag was chucked in, followed by Tommy sitting down and gently shutting the door. The kid buckled up but proceeded to bring his knees to his chest as he looked forlornly out the window. Dream swallowed the saliva built in his mouth before looking away from the rearview mirror to watch Sap get back in the driver’s seat and get them moving.

Throughout the trip home, the adults kept glancing up at the kid in the back to make sure he didn’t disappear on them. Multiple times they watched him almost nod off before abruptly bringing his head up to continue looking out the window at the landscape. Once it looked like Tommy fully went goodnight, Dream looked at his friend and whispered carefully, “Do you have any idea?”

Despite being vague, Sapnap picked up on what Dream was asking perfectly, whispering back all the same, “Not a clue, dude. Do you think it would be worth hitting up Wilbur and ask-”

“NO!”

A new voice screamed out, and while the car wasn’t anywhere near crashing, both adults sat up ramrod straight at the yell. They glanced at each other before looking back at the rearview mirror. Tommy was wide awake now, something akin to pure terror on his expression, “N-No, you can’t call Wilbur or- or my parents! Neither of them are… options, at the moment,” the kid hastily added on.

Well, if anything that made the adults even _more_ confused, if yet another glance being sent between them was any indication. Dream took a small deep breath, “Okay, Tommy, we don’t have to right now. We’re all pretty tired anyway, right?”

The kid seemed to realize he was breathing rather heavily. He leaned back into his seat and took his own deep breath, his being bigger than Dream’s by a wide margin, “Y-Yeah, thank you.”

Dream simply nodded and looked back out the front window. The sun was completely up over the horizon by the time they made it back home and parked. Tommy had actually managed to truly fall asleep, and Dream and Sapnap felt bad about having to potentially wake him up.

That’s when Sapnap pointed at Dream, “You. Carry him. I can get his bag.”

Dream sputtered, remembering that they needed to be quiet, “What? I don’t know if he’s okay with that! You can’t just carry a child randomly! That feels like- like I’m violating some unspoken child law.” The speedrunner crossed his arms, his cheeks becoming slightly pink.

Sapnap gently shut the door behind the driver’s seat with Tommy’s bag in hand, “Bet.” At Dream’s glare, Sap rolled his eyes, “Okay, listen, the poor kid looks like he would fall over regardless if he was awake to walk. Give him a break. I don’t even know if he’ll feel you picking him up and putting him in a bed.”

Dream sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. Sapnap had a point, but that didn’t stop Dream from feeling incredibly anxious, “I don’t know, like, what if I drop him?”

It was a few seconds of silence before Sapnap snorted, “Dude, have more faith in yourself.”

Dream screamed as much as he could. Which is to say he didn’t really scream, whispers and all that, “Last week you said you trusted a wood-chipper to hold a baby more than me!”

Sapnap waved him off, “Yeah, last week! The times are constantly changing, babe, just embrace it!”

Seeing as he wasn’t going to win, Dream grumbled as he opened Tommy’s door and bent over to unbuckle the kid, carefully snaking his arms under the blond’s knees and back. Since he easily avoided every part of the car while getting Tommy out and even managing to shut the door by kicking it with his foot, he relented that Sap was right.

He didn’t say it out loud, though. When he looked up to see the most shit-eating grin on his friend’s face, Dream scrunched his nose even more than last time, “Oh shut it you arsonist.”

Sap’s giggles were quiet as the two of them walked back to the house, the younger adult unlocking the door and keeping it open so Dream could quickly walk in and make his way over to the extra bedroom they had for visitors. Dream was halfway down the hall when he froze momentarily at Tommy murmuring in his semi-sleep and turning so he _curled into Dream’s chest._ For the briefest of seconds, Dream wondered how hard the adoption process really was before Tommy finally muttered out, “‘orry, by the way.”

Dream let out one singular nervous laugh before continuing to walk, “Sorry for what, Toms?”

The blond shrugged like it was obvious, “For making you face reveal. I didn’t really think about it until we were close to your house and I realized I got to see Dreamwastaken’s face before anyone else. Well, outside of George and Sap maybe.”

Dream was at the empty unused bed and setting the kid down under the covers when he grinned, “Nah, it’s okay, really, there were more pressing matters than probably trying to make a mask last minute. Besides, it’s pretty underwhelming anyway, innit?”

Tommy smushed his face into the pillow like it was a lifeline, hiding somewhat of a blissful grin at Dream’s small attempt at British-isms, “Yeah, I kinda assumed you weren’t the best looking anyway. Not as good as me at least.”

Dream snorted, and before he could tell his brain to stop, his hand came up to ruffle Tommy’s hair, “Yep, no wonder the women all fawn over you.” Tommy’s only response to that was a rather loud snore, so all the adult could do was walk away to go to his own bed, “Have a good sleep, Toms, you deserve it.

Once Dream was laying in his bed, it took him a few restless minutes to fall back asleep. He had to think about everything that would come of this, like how they needed to feed the kid, what they would have him be busy doing because they weren’t just going to shove him in a corner to be bored, not to mention they needed to get out of him how the kid ended up literally _flying to America_ at some point. Once Dream was finally able to quell his raging thoughts, he had one last question right before the darkness overtook him.

_Oh Ender, what had they gotten themselves into?_

\---

The next morning, Dream and Sapnap woke up a little bit earlier than usual to make food for their new mouth to feed.

They conversed in hushed words, the sizzling and popping of grease on the pan occasionally being louder than their whispers. As soon as they heard the pitter-patter of feet wearing socks come toward them, they shut up and started rationing everything they made between three plates. A very zombie-brain-looking Tommy came waltzing in and perked right up and the smell of freshly made pancakes and bacon

Sapnap shoved Tommy’s plate toward the kid, “Here you go, bro.”

Tommy sat down in the countertop chair while rolling his eyes, “Wow, how clever.”

Sapnap shot him a toothy grin while Dream picked at his own plate, thinking about how he wanted to word what was on his mind. He started with small talk, “So, Tommy, how was the room? Comfy? Cold?”

Tommy was through one strip of bacon and took his first bite of pancake when Dream asked his question. Swallowing the food in his mouth, Tommy thought about how to answer, “Oh, it was perfectly fine, I just don’t know how George will feel about his room being ransacked by a much cooler British person.”

Before Dream could register Tommy’s quip at his friend, Sapnap snorted and flipped the extra pancakes currently being cooked, “Please, that’s just a guest room. We figured we didn’t need a fourth for whenever George came because Dream’s room is right down the hall anyway.”

Tommy blinked, not quite picking up on the joke just yet, “Wait, so they’ll be sharing it?”

Sapnap glanced at Tommy with a Look, “Exactly.”

“Hey!” Dream objected, a grin on his face seeing his two friends joke around like nothing was wrong. That made him feel better about what the future entailed, but the problem was that there still _was_ something wrong. Something so wrong Tommy ended up in Florida at three in the morning.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Dream cleared his throat and passed his empty plate to Sapnap to clean, “Okay, I think we all knew this time was coming.”

Tommy was licking his plate clean when Dream spoke that, so he froze and brought it slowly away from his face with a hint of panic in his eyes, “Oh, yeah, for sure…”

The two adults stopped to look at one another before looking back at Tommy, ever so patient. They hoped their eyes conveyed the pure concern they had for the boy, and then Tommy took a deep breath, “I just think it’s weird how slowly Tubbo is growing in comparison with me, you know?”

… What?

But the blond kept going as if he was making sense, “I mean, Philza said we shared like ninety percent of each of our subscribers, right? So Tubbo should be at least gaining them at the speed I am if he can’t have the same amount.”

Oh. Oh, he was _deflecting._ What a wonderful sign.

Dream tried getting the train back on the tracks, “Tommy, you know that’s not what-”

“So what better way to let Tubbo get the spotlight than taking a big vacay, right?” Tommy just… wasn’t listening whatsoever, perfectly content with ignoring them, “I’ll be out here catching the perfect tan long enough for my best friend to get the recognition he deserves.”

Sapnap felt like groaning, “Tommy, we found you _crying,_ there’s no way this is a ‘vacay’, and there’s no way it’s about _Tubbo,_ so-”

“Please, Sapnap, don’t be jealous,” Tommy seemed to be slightly more irritated than before. He was upset they weren’t letting it go, “I’m sorry there are only so many brunette Minecraft Youtubers that can be famous, but that’s no reason to take it out on-”

“ _Thomas!_ ” Dream finally interjected. “ _Please,_ we just wanna know what’s wrong so we can _help._ ”

Once the blood stopped rushing to his ears, Dream blinked a few times and realized his mistake.

Tommy was slightly frozen to the spot, fingers curling around the edge of the counter, “S-Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. I can tell you whatever you need, even- even if I…”

A cold, hard thing settled in Dream’s gut, and before he could start unfairly freaking out (for fuck’s sake stupid brain, _you’re_ not the one that got yelled at), Sapnap came up slightly between them with his arms out in a placating gesture, “Okay, let’s stop for a sec and realize where we are going with this. Dream, Tommy doesn’t want to talk about it right now, and that’s okay. Our terms of him staying here aren’t rescindable for any reason.”

Dream jerked back as if Sapnap struck him, “Of- Of course _not,_ I don’t care if I never learn why and Tommy lived here for the rest of his _life._ ”

Sapnap grinned at Dream defending the kid with such a statement, “Well, he needs to go back home for school at some point, but I agree with the sentiment.” Then he turned to the kid himself, “However, Tommy, Dream is also right, we do need to learn at some point, okay? It’s not normal for a 16-year-old to country hop while running from something. You might not be ready to tell us why just yet, and that’s okay, but I _promise_ you can just _say_ that. You don’t need to get jokes-y or snippy to avoid the subject. We’ll respect your feelings for as long as you’re here, got it? We just want to help you.”

Tommy took a few deep breaths before visibly relaxing, “Y-Yeah, you’re right.” The boy turned to Dream with a sincere look, “Sorry, Dream, I know you’re just trying to help and got worried, I didn’t mean to make you think that- that I didn’t care what you’re doing for me or anything.”

Dream relaxed too, “It’s okay, for what it’s worth, I’m also sorry. I just let the ‘what-ifs’ get to my head a little bit, which I should probably stop doing, huh? And don’t worry, we know you care greatly. You don’t need to prove it by acting a certain way or doing certain things. Just… try not to do the dumb shit I did at your age while you’re here. I don’t want to turn grey before 50 like my dad.”

The two blonds felt themselves giggling, and the sight allowed Sapnap to relax as well, “Okay, now that we’ve got _that_ settled, who wants to watch a movie?”

Dream and Tommy perked up at that, the boy whispering out an excited _“Ooooo”_ while Dream tilted his head, “That sounds like fun, actually.”

Sapnap clapped his hands, “Awesome! Let me finish cleaning up here and then I’ll go find a disk and then we can get to partying! You two can go get set up on the couch while I look for the movie. Be right back!”

Dream and Tommy left the kitchen while Sapnap cleaned like he said he would. Dream knew he probably should have held back, but he had one more question that was especially important, “Sorry, Tommy, but I have to ask, what about school?”

Tommy didn’t mind this question, though, seeing as it was more of a practical thing, “Oh, yeah, that’s fine. It’s Spring Break, so I’m safe for the rest of the week.”

Dream nodded, leaving it at that, “Sounds good.”

Tommy was the first to sit down on the couch, allowing Dream to plop right next to him. After a few minutes of sitting in silence, it was only then when Dream registered the kid furiously tapping away on his phone. The adult desperately attempted to ignore it, trying to focus on Sapnap messing with the Blu-ray and failing spectacularly. Raising one of his eyebrows slightly, Dream figured gently prodding the kid would work the best, “So who ya texting, Toms? Is it women?”

That got a small chuckle out of Tommy, so Dream considered it a win. Tommy typed a few more things before putting his phone to sleep and shoving it in his pocket, “Ah, nah, just texting Tubbo to let him know I’ll be busy for a while. No streams or recording or VCing any time soon.”

Suddenly, Sapnap leaped onto the spot on the side of Dream opposite to Tommy, clicking the buttons on the TV remote in his hand, “Gotcha. Let’s see… Ha! Now it’s starting!”

The sight of the _Shrek_ title screen made Dream immediately start to wheeze-laugh and Tommy groan. Sapnap, the cheeky motherfucker, just smiled through the whole thing. Clicking play, Sapnap tossed the remote away from everyone, and before Tommy could get up to get away or pick it up himself, Dream braced his arm lightly on his chest and kept him down, “Oh no, Thomathy, you’re going to suffer with us because what else are friends for.”

Tommy’s eyes widened in fear, only making Dream laugh harder before turning his attention back on the TV, content with the fact that Tommy wasn’t going to try and escape. The familiar intro went on and on until Sapnap got noticeably more jittery the closer it got to the end.

_““-for her True Love, and True Love’s First Kiss”... Yea-haha, like that’s ever going to happen.”_

Suddenly, Sapnap was perched one knee on the couch, fists in front of him like he was about to fight someone, “Some-”

“-BODY once told me!” Dream started singing along with his friend, throwing his arm around Sapnap’s shoulder while Sapnap returned the favor by throwing his arm around Dream’s waist. The two sang like drunken sailors, Tommy putting a hand between them and his eyes in embarrassment and contemplation of life.

“-I ain’t the sharpest tool in the sheee-ed. She was looking kind of dumb with her finger- take it away, Tommy!” Sapnap pointed to the boy.

Tommy blinked, and before he could help himself, he rolled his eyes and was grinning, all pretenses of not wanting to be there forgotten, “-of an L on her forehead!”

Dream and Sapnap’s cheers might receive a noise complaint later, but right now they were having fun, and that’s all that mattered. Suddenly Tommy was in their daisy chain with Dream throwing his other arm around Tommy, bringing him into the group hug as they sang their lungs out.

Around the scene of when everyone was split apart was when Tommy nodded off, Sapnap not too far behind. Dream was still stuck in the middle, but he wanted to sleep in an actual bed, so with the finesse of a kid going to the kitchen at 2 AM trying to not wake up their parents, Dream wormed his way out of their grips, looking back to watch as they fell together to fill the space he left. He felt an odd sense of pride bloom within himself, and before he could help it, he was grabbing a blanket off a nearby chair and draping over them. He turned the TV as low as possible so it still made faint noise and even whispered out a tiny, “Goodnight you two,” as he went to get ready for bed

He speedran the process purely because his thoughts were the most active when he was lying down in the dark and he needed that right now. He needed the brainpower to consider what to do now with what they knew. Tommy was upset with the thing he didn’t tell them to the point he bought a plane ticket over it. While ‘being so upset you don’t want to talk about it’ paints some answers for Dream, it paints a whole lot more questions and loose ends as well.

However, what he _didn’t_ need the brain energy for was to think too hard about Tommy’s reaction to him earlier. As long as he avoided that topic, he would be fine. Peachy even.

They had to be.

\---

Sapnap would be the first to say his idea was genius and Dream overreacted.

Tommy was doing okay with them. He ate enough, and sure the amount of sleep he might be getting wasn’t _perfect,_ but it was better than what Dream and Sapnap expected of him. There were a lot of things they expected from the kid that never happened, though, so maybe that wasn’t such a good thing?

The kid had been quieter than he was on his streams, which Sap had to admit probably wasn’t that much of a low bar to cross, but that didn’t make it any less of a concerning thing. They _wanted_ the kid to be himself here, not hide away behind some Nice Temporary Guest persona he thought he needed to use. Yeah, Tommy might be here temporarily but they wanted that time to be _fun._

So that left it up to your Cool Pal Sapnap to fix the problem.

He gathered up everything he needed before walking over to the doorway. “Oh Thooooomas!” he sang-shouted the kid’s name. “Get in here! I got something for ya!”

Sapnap proceeded to back away from the doorway to stand in front of his soon to be grand gesture of a pick me up. The blond soon came strolling in but stopped about a foot into the room, “Uh, is that a dead plant?”

Sapnap nodded his head like an excited puppy, “Yup! Dream and I have had these sitting around for a while because _someone_ forgot to water them, so today I decided to finally throw them out. All except for _this one._ ” Sapnap then shot his right arm out as if he was putting a super rare gem on display, but no, it was literally a wilted and dead plant.

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, seemingly curious about what Sapnap needed his attention for, “Well, I mean, I could have helped you if you wanted.”

Glossing right over that- seriously, did this kid think he needed to _earn_ a place to stay?- Sapnap just grinned even more as he slowly slid something out from his long sleeve, “But then how would be able to do something like _this,_ Thomathy?”

A small matchbox protruded from the area in front of Sap’s wrist, and before Tommy could help himself, his eyes widened, “Sapnap holy _shit,_ I thought your fire thing was just in Minecraft? Unless, it isn’t, which is totally cool, but, like, it seemed like a persona thing, and if it’s still only a Minecraft thing that’s just as cool.”

Sapnap’s grin softened at Tommy’s attempts at being supportive. He used his free hand to spin his desk chair and pat the seat, motioning Tommy to sit, “I mean, yeah, I’m probably not anywhere near being a pyromaniac in real life, but fire is still pretty cool, which I _know_ that makes me sound like one anyway but- agh, just get in the chair, Tommy.”

Tommy finally started to smile as he walked over and claimed the seat Sap chose for him. He tried scooting closer, but Sapnap pulled him back to the original spot before Tommy could get any bright ideas. Only taking a moment to go grab the other swivel chair from the closet, Sapnap was soon back and sitting in his own spot only at a slightly closer distance than Tommy purely so he could reach the fuel source.

He pulled out one singular match, “Hope you’re ready for the light show, Toms, it’s going to be one of a kind.” Sapnap lit the match and placed it against the fallen fauna, taking it away and blowing it out as soon as the first sigh of the plant being set on fire was shown.

As Sapnap and Tommy stared at the burning with excitement, that left the door open to tune out the footsteps that came up to them and immediately turned around to leave again. It was only a half a minute before Sapnap registered those footsteps coming back much faster, and before Sapnap could look away from his bright creation, an arm shot between the two audience members holding a plastic cup full of water. The hand proceeded to dump out all the cup’s contents onto the plant, silencing the light with the typical noise of a fire going _shhh_ after being put out.

Turning around ever so slowly and nervously, Sapnap and Tommy had the same look of _oh no dad caught us_ on their face as they looked back at an appalled and slightly nerve-wracked Dream. The man’s arms were laying slack at his sides, and if he didn’t look five seconds away from passing out he probably would be breathing heavily, “What the _fuck_ Nick.”

Sapnap glanced over to see Tommy silently begin to freak out. Knowing Dream most likely wasn’t actually _that_ mad, Sap figured he could use it to his advantage and put on his biggest shit-eating grin yet, “What’s the matter, _Clay,_ upset you’re not the cool uncle like you wanted to be?”

Dream glanced over at Tommy when the kid started giggling at Sapnap’s sarcasm and picked up on what he needed to do immediately, “I _am_ cool! In fact, I’m so cool I don’t need to commit _minor felonies_ to impress someone!” He dramatically threw his arms away from himself for comedic effect, causing Tommy to wheeze even more.

Sapnap crossed his arms and rolled his eyes playfully, “Please, all the cool kids commit minor felonies. It’s like their love language. It’s not my fault you don’t have the balls to understand them.”

Dream squawked and sputtered, and while both Tommy and Sapnap started to laugh, Dream pulled out his biggest trump card yet, “ _I_ at least have the balls to pay for towels _I_ didn’t burn down last weak, Sappitus!”

_That_ got Sap to shut up immediately, “Hey! I swear that was an accident!”

Dream let out a ‘psh’ sound while crossing his arms as his friend did before, “Right, because it’s not like even blind grandmothers know not to leave fabric that close to a stove that’s _turned on_ or anything.”

Sapnap finally stood up and got in Dream’s face, shoving his pointer finger into his friend’s chest with a semi-glare from himself. It was all a part of the act they had going on, and as Sapnap ‘angrily’ defended his honor five inches away from Dream, the older man took a second to glance at Tommy still losing it behind them.

The younger blond was laughing the hardest he had since he’d shown up, even needing to wipe a tear out of his eye because of it. Dream broke character for a second to grin so slightly that not even Sapnap could see it.

The kid was going to be okay.

Eventually. 

\---

Later that night, Sapnap was pretty sure his penalty of not being able to rip on Dream for at least two hours if Tommy didn’t go to sleep convinced the kid to finally get in bed and not get out, so whoever was rummaging down in the living room was either Dream or the ghost Karl insisted Dream and Sapnap would have when they first mentioned living together. Padding his way out there while rubbing his eye, he stopped when he came into the room to see Dream doing push-ups.

That only meant good things.

Leaning on the edge of the doorway he was in, Sapnap looked down at his friend in mild amusement with concern sprinkled here and there, “Dude, I thought we agreed this was bad for you. What are you doing?”

Dream almost fell over when Sapnap first started talking but recovered wonderfully before standing up and using one hand to prop himself on a table, leaning over it in an attempt to look cooler than he actually was, “Heeyyyyyy Sappitus. Nothing much, just burning that sweet sweet calorie intake down from the day.”

Sapnap raised an eyebrow as Dream proceeded to walk to the kitchen like there was nothing wrong. Rolling his eyes, Sapnap followed because dammit he wasn’t going to be a bad friend and let this go like last time, “Be sure to keep your voice down, don’t want to wake up Toms. And don’t lie to me, the last time someone found you doing this you collapsed over your desk three days later from lack of sleep.”

Dream was at the fridge, and he was about to open it roughly before hearing Sapnap mention the sleeping kid upstairs. Taking a deep breath, Dream opened it softly before pulling out the milk jug, “Don’t worry Sap, I remember that. It’s not like I was there or anything. Besides,” he set the jug down on the counter and went to grab a glass to drink out of, “This is different.”

Sapnap let out a ‘psh’ before crossing his arms, a grin on his face hiding his minor annoyance at his friend refusing to take care of himself, “Yes, and the time you tried editing with a 100-degree fever was different as well.”

Dream threw his hands up in the air in an attempt to play everything off like a joke, “We all know a hot brain comes up with the hottest ideas.”

Sapnap sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “That wasn’t funny the first time you know and it’s definitely not funny now.” He brought his hand back down to cross it like before, “Seriously, you’re going to set a bad example for Tommy with this, what’s wrong?”

Dream’s eye twitched at that. So Sapnap _was_ getting somewhere, especially when bringing up Tommy. Too bad Dream continued to blatantly ignore it, empty glass cup in hand as he shut the cabinet, “Please, as if that kid would pick up bad habits from me. If anything, _my_ sleep schedule would probably be better than anything he _hopes_ to have. I live with you, Mister College Student, I know what it’s like.”

Sapnap looked away momentarily with his eyes closed and a grin on his face. If Dream wanted to play that game then fine, he could too, “Alrighty then, absolutely nothing is wrong in Dreamiepoo Land whatsoever and he’s not lying to my face about it. Really, Dream, if they’re trying to cancel you on Twitter for the third time this month it’s not that big of a dea-”

A sudden quiet yet also loud _clink_ reverberated around the kitchen. Sapnap jumped, and he had to blink before refocusing on what appeared to be a pissed-off Dream. He was no longer holding the glass seeing as it was roughly set down to catch Sap's attention.

The older man was arched, both his hands on the counter supporting him with them clenched into fists at the same time. Oh yes, Dream was peeved, and Sapnap didn’t even need to think about asking what he said wrong when Dream answered, “It’s not about _me,_ it’s about _Tommy,_ you utter moron!”

Sapnap would normally be wounded when getting snapped at by Dream like that, but he could see the underlying hurt in his friend’s eyes. This definitely was different, and definitely in a particularly worse way, “Yeah, okay, that makes sense. I figured it was something like that after seeing your reaction when I mentioned him just a sec ago. You’re worried about him, right? I get why that would keep you up, but I don’t think he would like you hurting yourself over it-”

Dreams laughter was absolutely not his familiar lighthearted wheeze. It was something cold and twisted, painful to Sap’s ears. You could have run your nails over a chalkboard and that would have hurt less. Dream’s eyes started to water, “Who cares about how _I’m_ handling it when I might have just made it ten times worse!”

Dream brought his hands up into his hair. Thankfully he wasn't tugging at it, but he did grab fistfuls in an attempt to keep himself in reality. He scooted backward until he was resting his lower back against a different counter, “You know how Tommy was scripted to act in Season 2, right? You saw it, the kid killed the performance. We’ve seen the _fanfics_ and how it _impacted_ people. But this isn’t my dumb Minecraft RP, this is _real life,_ and Tommy is acting scarily similar to those same fics…” Dream’s eyes started getting blank as if he was staring off into the distance, “If he was receiving some kind of treatment at home like the one I was acting out with him in the game, how much worse did I make it? How close was I- how close _am_ I to making the kid suicidal in real life?”

Holy shit.

Literally, what else could Sapnap say to that?

Even if he had the words, Dream still seemed to be steamrolling through his pent up emotions, “There’s the whole thing about trigger warnings, right? You can remember something that traumatized you in great detail if a certain sight or smell hits you so you try to avoid them, or build yourself up to it so it doesn’t adversely affect you anymore. Boy, what a great thing it is that I made him reenact some potential trauma literally every week isn’t it?!”

Dream let out a shaky exhale, sliding his hands down the sides of his face before bringing them around himself, staring back off into space once more, “All I’ve been able to think about is what if he didn’t get a plane ticket to us, huh? What if he was in random-ass Kentucky or Maine where he was completely alone? Oh hell, what if he decided to ‘leave’ the U.K. but in a much more sinister way-”

Halfway through his self-deprecation, Sapnap snuck up to him and threw his arms around his shoulders, freezing Dream in his spot. The older man felt a tear travel down his right cheek before he let go of himself and wrapped his arms around his friend's waist, letting out a choked noise as he dropped his head to Sap’s shoulder, “God, this is all so fucked.”

Sapnap brought a hand to the back of Dream's neck and stood there in silence, letting Dream absorb the comfort. It was a few minutes of somber hugging before Sapnap broke them apart, leaving his hands on Dream’s shoulders. Dream wiped a tear out of his eye while Sapnap started speaking, “Okay, to start things off, I don’t think Tommy’s home life was so bad it could be comparable to what happened in the Dream SMP. He would have been in a lot worse shape when we picked him up.”

Dream started to object, “But-”

“Also, even if he wouldn’t go _directly_ to you...” Sapnap shut him up with A Look. “He would have at least gone to Wilbur or Philza as a buffer to talk about anything that made him uncomfy and they probably would have mentioned it to you. Considering they never did, I would say you’re pretty in the clear.”

Sapnap brought his hands back to lay them on his hips. Dream took this moment to hug himself again, albeit much less tight than before, “I would think that, but I also assumed Tommy would just… go to them if he ever had issues, especially issues outside of Youtube. He felt the need to _fly to America,_ Nick, so were they really as close as people thought?”

Sapnap grimaced. He was wondering about that too. Regardless, he had a backup point, “Fair enough I guess. I think something weird happened in Tommy’s brain that made him run away completely. You’ve seen Wilbur off-stream, he wouldn’t be talking about what he was recording with the kid most of the time if it was all an act, you know? And even if it somehow _was_ an act, and even if somehow Tommy’s home was _that_ bad…”

Sapnap put his left hand in his pocket before throwing his right arm around Dream’s shoulders, “He’s safe now. With people who want to help him. Even if you somehow managed to ‘trigger’ him or some kind of trauma he had, you have time to make up for it, okay? The world isn’t ending, so-”

“So stop whining like it is, I know I know,” Dream lightly giggled as he looked down at his feet. “Puffy was always the smartest out of all of us.”

Sapnap shook his friend with the arm he had around him, “Exactly. You’re not going to fix whatever you think you did by collapsing and needing to go to the hospital.”

Dream rolled his eyes and grinned, “I’ve literally never had to go to the hospital for overworking myself.”

Sap then used his arm to start pushing Dream back to their respective bedrooms, walking past his doorway to make double sure Dream actually reached his, “Only because you fucking relented and let your mom come and take care of you while you recovered, and that was _after_ George sent you a screenshot of the plane ticket he almost bought.”

Once they got to Dream’s room, Dream leaned away from his friend so Sap could put his left hand in his still-open left pocket to mirror his right side. Dream leaned on his doorway, “I still can’t believe you threatened me with that. You woke George _up,_ Sap, the fact that he didn’t get mad at your for _that_ would make any man re-evaluate what they were doing.”

Sapnap waved goodbye as he turned around to go back to his room. He was grinning, and right before he left Dream’s line of sight, he decided to get the last word in for once, “Oh he definitely was mad, I just had to send him a brand new spankin mattress. One that heats up and cools down and has its own personal remote and everything. The things I do for our friendship, man, they would give our fanbase material for _weeks._ ”

Dream pointed in the direction of his friend despite Sap not being there anymore, “I _knew_ it!”

But he was alone, left to laugh at his own objection by himself.

Feeling the tension leave his shoulders as he turned around to collapse into his bed, Dream felt himself fall asleep much quicker than previous nights. He still wasn’t feeling perfect- they still hadn’t figured out why the kid ran to them in the first place- but Dream knew they had the time to get there. Tommy felt comfortable with them, and that’s all they could have asked for, at least for right now.

Dream’s dreams (heh, he’s so funny) were peaceful.

\---

The first sign of Tommy starting to truly relax was when the two adults were chilling in the kitchen on their phones and were interrupted by the kid bouncing into the room and immediately asking, “Can I record something with you guys?”

Sapnap and Dream glanced at each other for a second, and they worried that would make the kid backtrack and take it as rejection, but when they looked back he stood as tall as ever. Dream responded first, “Yeah, sure Tommy, can I ask why you want to? Not that I’m going to say no, I’m just curious what gave you the idea.”

Tommy shrugged his shoulders before walking over to the kitchen counter to sit, “Eh, I just miss recording dumb shit with you guys. Lore this and dramatic fights this, I wanna make another church in Minecraft with you again.”

Dream started to giggle, “Yeah that’s fair. So you just want to screw around in creative?”

That’s when Sapnap finally decided to interrupt with his own idea, “Why not record a Manhunt with him? You know people would kill to see something like that.”

Tommy perked up instantaneously at the word ‘manhunt’,” Yeah! Can we, can we? Let’s record it from all our POVs and then I can edit it like one of my vide-ooooh…”

Dream got confused at why Tommy trailed off. From what he heard it sounded like a decent idea, great even! But then he grimaced when he realized what Tommy realized: they only had two recording setups in the house, so Sapnap would most likely have to sit out.

Sapnap opened his mouth to say it would be okay and he could just sit in the back- get in funny quips away from the mic- when Dream stood up and pointed at him excitedly, “Hey! Two weeks ago we got that new setup and never got around to throwing away the old one! Let’s set that up, and then we all can record!”

Sapnap and Tommy glanced at one another briefly before looking back at Dream with the most mischievous grins they could muster. Oh yes, this was going to be fun.

It surprisingly didn’t take that much time to set it up. They put a temporary table in Sap’s room for Tommy to sit at, and they placed a sort of soundproof wall between the two of them so their mics couldn’t pick up from each other that they were in the same place and cause any kind of feedback. They did sound checks and recording checks and everything in between, and once it looked like everything was good to go, they started for real.

Dream sat back in his real-life chair as he watched Tommy’s character punch the air in front of Dream’s, the green and white skin crouching over and over again. They decided to let Tommy do the intro because why not? It wouldn’t hurt anyone if he did it, besides, an every POV Manhunt was already unique. 

Tommy was imitating what Dream could consider the worst American accent. Not even George was that bad, “ _Today we coded it so Dream is bad at Minecraft. Now, you may wonder why not much seemed to have changed-_ ”

Dream felt himself wheeze-laughing over Sapnap’s giggles, “ _What?_ Excuse me-”

“Shhhh Dream,” Tommy stopped him. “It’s rude to interrupt a man’s intro you know, _anyway-_ ”

Tommy went on to explain the familiar Manhunt spiel over their laughter. The recording proceeded on as normal, everyone making quips at each other and generally having a good time despite the competitive nature of the videos. It was very hard for Dream to not coo or aww when Sapnap got particularly protective of Tommy during the times Dream almost killed the boy. George was going to be sooooo jealous.

The video ended in the worst best way possible.

They were on his tail the entire time he Eye of Endered to the Stronghold. For a second, he thought he had managed to get away. He heard them as they complained about losing where he had gone, and Dream giggled in delight. Soon after the triangulation was complete, he was already digging straight down. After a good distance, he listened to Sapnap tell Tommy they needed to start digging as well.

That was, before Tommy’s voice said, “Wait, I was hoping I would get to use this.”

Dream tilted his eyebrow in confusion, and right as he broke into the Stronghold and landed on some slabs built to be railings surrounding stairs, he heard a familiar _clang_ of a specific item being placed. He was stuck having to mine one more block to be able to move, and that was his downfall. Before he could get out of the way, the familiar red **You Died!** screen filled his vision.

**Dream was squashed by a falling anvil**

Sapnap and Tommy cheered in excitement, and while Dream’s groans of indignation sounded real, they were really there to hide the pride blooming in his chest. While he was always proud of his friends when they beat him, this time felt different.

Once the recording was turned off, Sapnap and Dream each gave Tommy a hard drive with theirs on it for him to edit. They all agreed to order pizza and hunkered down to watch the original _Avengers_ movie that night to cool off. Both Dream and Tommy were holding a slice in their hand and mouth when the heroes assembled in the famous scene with the camera spinning around all of them. They still managed to group high five with Sapnap despite the obstacle.

Yup, everything was going to be okay.

\---

At least that was what Dream thought.

Because later that night when he walked past Tommy’s room to go to bed he did not expect to hear _crying_ coming from it.

Freezing on the spot, Dream very quickly ran through all his possible options before deciding to bite the bullet and knock on the door to let the boy know he was there before anything else, “Tommy? Can I come in?”

The only thing he got in response was a choked off sob. If Tommy wanted to tell him that meant no later tomorrow, then Dream could deal with it then. He stepped in and his heart broke immediately at the sight. Tommy was hunched over on top of his covers, his hands desperately wiping at the tears coming from his eyes.

Slowing his speed, Dream was careful as he made his way over to the bed. He sat down with a few inches of space between him and the boy, resting his lower back against the headboard. Dream contemplated the next action he wanted to take and figured if Tommy really didn’t like it he could show it with his movements. Dream laid a gentle hand on the kid’s shoulder, which only succeeded in making Tommy cry harder.

Dream started rubbing his back, “Oh Toms, I’m sorry for whatever is causing this.”

Tommy let out a tear-filled laugh, “You know you’re nothing like them, right?”

And just like that, Dream’s hand froze.

Tommy took that as clearance to continue, “Sorry, I got up to go to the bathroom to piss when Sapnap was talking to you. Nothing- your acting didn’t bring up any bad memories or whatever you think you did. I knew it was just a character. Besides, my parents weren’t as bad as your character was anyway.”

That didn’t sit particularly well with Dream, “Tommy, you don’t need to minimize whatever they did-”

“I’m not!” Tommy practically shrieked before recoiling immediately. “Sorry, I’m just- they genuinely weren’t like that. I’m not saying they were perfect or anything, but they didn’t hit me or take my stuff away, hell, they even _bought me_ my first recording setup…”

Dream felt a ‘but’ on its way.

Sure enough, Tommy took a shaky deep breath, “They just… had _such_ high expectations for me, you know? Which I understood! If Youtube ever fell flat I needed a way to support myself, and what better way than to get a good education! So yeah, they were a little tougher on me when I failed a test or forgot to turn in homework, it’s not like it wasn’t _deserved,_ but then…” Tommy started trembling visibly, “Right before I came to you guys, my parents received a letter from my college saying that if I kept doing the way I was in a certain class that they would fail me automatically and drop me before it got worse, and I just-” 

Dream couldn’t handle the distance between them anymore and brought Tommy into a hug, bringing a hand up to run through the kid’s hair while the other one stayed down to keep up its comforting motion. Tommy eventually brought his arms around Dream’s waist, soon tilting his head down to push his face into the older man’s shoulder.

Dream felt it get wet from tears, but stayed silent while Tommy still got everything out. The kid clearly needed to, “I felt so fucking bad, I just couldn’t _understand_ the class and no one _listened_ to me but I _tried_ Dream, I _tried so fucking hard_ and it still wasn’t _enough._ ”

Dream suddenly found himself rocking the boy, still silent as ever.

The trembles got harder, and Dream’s shoulder got even damper, “I was already having a shitty end of the week due to another thing, so imagine my shock when I come home to them angrily muttering in the kitchen. And- And before I can even say _good evening,_ they’re up in my face just _screaming_ at me. It was so _loud_ Dream, the words, the gestures, _If this is how my son is going to act then he’s no son of mine!_ Next thing I knew… the next thing I knew was…”

Dream thought it would be okay to help Tommy continue, “You knew what, Tommy?”

Tommy scrunched his face further into Dream’s neck, “My dad was screaming at me to grab everything I thought I needed, _because he wasn’t doing this to be mean,_ and _to get out and only come back when I gave a shit about them._ ”

Dream sucked in a sharp inhale. God, Tommy got _kicked out,_ no wonder he didn’t want to talk about it. It was hard to fully grapple with parents ever doing that, let alone _your own._

It was a few minutes before they split apart, Tommy’s shaking down to only being minor and his tears mostly gone. Tommy sniffled and wiped the remaining tear tracks away. Dream kept a hand on the kid’s shoulder as he began what he considered to be some of the most important words of his life, “Okay, before I touch anything else you mentioned, you know they were still bad, right?”

Tommy blinked, unable to register what Dream was saying.

The older man started again, “Tommy, just because parents don’t hurt you or take away your stuff doesn’t make what they do automatically better. When I was playing our characters with you, I also manipulated you into thinking it was your fault, remember?”

Tommy took a second to think about that before nodding once.

Dream did the same, “Okay, so answer me this. Do you think getting kicked out was even partially your fault?”

Tommy immediately froze, and Dream’s heart cracked in two by the kid’s next words, “W-Well, it was because of that failed class, right? So…”

Dream grimaced and quickly calculated the cost of a potential therapist, “Tommy, that’s emotional abuse. It’s still abuse, and no matter how anyone tries to paint it, even if there’s no bruise making involved, it’s still just as bad.”

Dream could see the cogs turning in Tommy’s head, but to emphasize his point he brought his other hand to rest on Tommy’s other shoulder, boxing the kid in before Dream gave him his most serious look yet. “Besides, even if you _deserved_ to get kicked out because of that,” Dream spoke with as much venom in his voice as possible at that idea, “it sounds like you should have been given more help so you _didn’t_ fail the class in the first place.”

Tommy found some energy in him after that, but it was the _wrong_ kind, “N-No, I mean, I just didn’t understand it because it wasn’t my strong suit. If I just _tried_ harder I would have-”

Dream brought Tommy into yet another hug, resting his chin atop the kid’s head, “That’s not how any of that works, Tommy. You deserved so much more help than anyone was giving you, and I’m sorry they made it seem like that was all your fault.”

It was a tense few seconds before Tommy whispered out, “Oh my god, my parents were abusing me.”

Dream silently winced. It hurt to hear, but as long as Tommy understood that they could work on helping him even more, “Yeah, yeah they were.”

They split apart again, Dream still leaving one hand on Tommy’s shoulder. They managed to look at each other and grin this time, though, so it was progress.

Progress Dream was very scared to shatter, but he still had more he needed to talk about, “Now that _that_ is out of the way for now… why did you fly here?”

For a second, Tommy misinterpreted that question, “Oh, well, as I was shoving things into my gym bag, I remembered where my passport was and decided to take it with me. A week after my 16th birthday, my parents planned a week-long trip to Russia that was very hush-hush, something just for me and my accomplishments. Kinda ironic how that passport they got me was the only reason I was able to get away from them, huh? Anyway, I got to the airport and bought one of the cheaper last-minute tickets. Once I landed I realized I grabbed one to Florida, and since I was still reeling from everything I decided to text-”

“No no, Tommy, wait-” Dream stopped him, electing to ignore that entire heartbreaking middle and panic-inducing end (what would the kid have done if he _didn’t_ land in Florida?) to get to what he meant, “I was asking why you didn’t just go to one of your adult friends in Britain. Philza loves you, and Wilbur wouldn’t hesitate to- to fucking murder for you. Hell, Tubbo might not be an adult, but I’m sure his parents would have been much more understanding than yours… Toms?”

Tommy wasn’t shaking again, but his fingers were clenching and unclenching, a sign that he was working through his thoughts. When Tommy spoke it was the quietest Dream had ever heard him be, “... Because I think I finally fucked up, Dream.”

Dream blinked, “Sorry, could you elaborate on that?”

Tommy took his right arm and wiped his eyes with it before taking another deep breath, “I mentioned how I was already having a shitty week, right? Well, a day before I got ripped a new one, I tried hanging out with Philza and Wilbur in Discord. It was going well, if a little strained. I was being my typical self, but before I could backtrack, Wilbur _snapped_ at me.”

… Oh, oh no.

Tommy continued forward, “He talked about how he wanted it to be chill and that he didn’t have time to deal with my energy before leaving the call. I was so in- in shock that I barely registered Phil saying _Sorry, I thought you would have seen how on edge he was_ before leaving too…” Tommy looked up at Dream, his eyes finally watering once more, “I always wondered if I would ever push my luck, and it sounds like I did just that.”

Dream was still reeling over the info when Tommy brought his knees up to his chest and laid his chin on top of them, “Then there’s Tubbo… Wonderful Tubbo who needed to focus on his own school work before break and channel and problems, not his dumb friend who probably could have avoided these very sudden issues altogether if that friend wasn’t such a shithead to start with.”

Dream couldn’t find it within him to correct that statement, because _ow,_ his head hurt from such a miscommunication.

See, Dream knew _exactly_ why Wilbur would be ‘on edge’ and why Philza would focus on him more.

Because a few days before Tommy showed up Dream was messaged by the brunette that he would be taking a break from Dream SMP stuff and only play or hang out for fun. He wasn’t going to do anything considered high maintenance like record or stream or write scripts. Dream gave him well wishes and told him that if he wanted an ear to talk to, Dream’s DMs were always open.

Through the power of Philza convincing his friend to be a healthy adult, Dream was told by Wilbur that the musician’s grandmother had very recently died. A grandmother he was very close to and had to help plan the funeral for. The funeral that was happening at the end of the week. From what Dream could gather, the only reason Philza knew was that he had to practically bully it out of Wilbur.

And of course, neither Wilbur nor Philza would tell the kid something that serious, Dream was pretty sure they didn’t tell anybody else for that matter, so what was Tommy supposed to think when he was suddenly yelled at by his best friend, his pseudo-older brother?

While Tommy was on a plane to America, Wilbur was mourning his grandma and Philza was there for emotional support.

Dream found himself turning Tommy so he could place both hands on Tommy’s shoulders as he did before. He wasn’t sure he could be more serious than he was then, but tonight was full of surprises anyway, “Tommy, I swear to you that they aren’t done with you, or tired of you, or God forbid _hate_ you. They would rather nuke their careers than think negatively of you.”

Tommy’s breathing got shaky, “But then- why did he…?”

Dream winced audibly this time, but recovered easily, “Listen, I don’t think it’s my place to tell, but Wilbur… Wilbur has been stressed this week. Philza knows why he’s stressed, so he is more concerned with making sure Wilbur doesn’t forget to do basic necessities like sleeping and eating. I bet you that if you called them first thing tomorrow they would jump for joy, relieved that you’re okay and that you still want to talk with them even after that ‘fight.’”

Tommy nodded slowly, taking in Dream’s words at a snail’s pace, “Y-Yeah, you’re right… but is it okay if I still wait to contact them?”

Dream jumped slightly, but only because he was confused, “I mean, sure, but do you mind telling me why? Is it because you wanna take a little longer break?”

Tommy adjusted himself so he was leaning back against his headboard, his head drooping to lay on Dream’s shoulder for the last time that night, “No... I just want to hang out with you and Sapnap a little bit more... if that’s okay...”

Dream felt his heart be mended after everything that was dumped on him. Sure, it was with a basic bandage and shouldn’t work as a permanent fix, but the fact that the only reason Tommy didn’t want to make up with his best friends just yet, his family at this point, was because he still wanted to hang with Dream and Sapnap. Fireworks were exploding in Dream’s brain, and it definitely was from more than the fact that he was tired.

Dream felt himself also leaning back against the headboard, his eyes closing and his head falling due to exhaustion. He yawned, “Sure thing, Toms, you can… hang with us… for as long… as you’d… like…”

The sleep the blonds received was some of the best they had in a while.

In the morning, Sapnap would come stumbling past Tommy’s room and blink at the open door. Tilting his head into the room, it was literally impossible for him to hold back a squeal of adorableness at the sight. On the bed was Dream and Tommy sitting up next to each other, Tommy’s head laying down on Dream’s shoulder while the older man curled around the kid protectively, his arm thrown around the back of him.

If it was also impossible to not take a picture before Sapnap went to the kitchen to make breakfast for his wonderful, precious friends, then nobody needed to know the photo existed except for him.

And George.

George was sooooo going to get sent this photo once everything was taken care of.

\---

The two blonds bounded into the kitchen the next morning to scrambled eggs and sausages courtesy of Sapnap. With quiet thank yous, they all proceeded to eat their food in somber silence, Sapnap sending a concerned glance towards Dream, most likely in reference to Tommy before Dream discreetly waved him off in a way that said ‘I’ll tell you later.’

Dream was done pretty quickly, not electing to grab seconds as Tommy did. Dream walked over to the sink to wash his plate and utensils while Sapnap plopped a big pile of eggs on Tommy’s plate again. As Dream finished up his plate and moved to rinse off his fork, he felt his phone start vibrating in his pocket.

Tommy snorted when Dream pulled it out to see who was contacting him, “Darn, it’s on silent. Here I was hoping to hear your song be your ringtone finally.”

Sapnap laughed while Dream grinned and playfully snapped, “Hush, Child.” However, he didn’t take his eyes off the screen, because the name that was displayed was very peculiar and threw Dream’s brain for a spin.

**Technoblade calling…**

Widening his eyes slightly and shrugging his shoulders, Dream accepted the call and brought his phone to his ear, “Suuuuuup dude, what causes you to contact my godly presence?

Techno was straight to the monotone point, “I’ve been standing in Orlando International for the past 30 minutes waiting for you. You know, to record our in-person meet up?”

_Fuck._

Nearly keeling over but managing to grip the sink edge to not do so, Dream swiveled his head to look at the calendar pinned up in the kitchen. He felt like maniacally laughing because _shit,_ right there on today’s date with a time that was _literally_ 30 minutes ago said the thing Dream deep down hoped wasn’t true and probably implied he was an utter dumbass: **Pick up Technoblade from airport.**

Sapnap looked at what Dream started staring at and proceeded to pale considerably. Tommy did the same thing, and maybe it took him a little bit longer to understand what was happening, but the kid was smart, okay? He could read the name _Technoblade_ on today’s date and start to silently freak out just like any other adult could.

Dream’s mouth was gapped when Technoblade started speaking again. His tone of voice had hidden amusement in front of even more hidden concern, “You okay over there, Dream? It’s okay if you want to change your mind and not do this, the hype is insane and most fans would understand.”

“Whaaaat? Of course not!” Dream deflected. “You know me, oversleeping my stupid alarm and everything.” Dream dramatically fake-yawned to try and get the point across, “Would you expect me to miss _picking up Technoblade for our in-person video_ because of _anything else?_ ”

Dream enunciated the parts about Technoblade coming to visit as if his roommates weren’t already aware of that and panicking their asses off, all the while starting at Sapnap and Tommy with a sort of horrified look in his eyes. Tommy seemed to be frozen in his seat while Sapnap ran out to the living room to scream into a pillow. Dream felt the exact same, but _he_ couldn’t do any screaming because _he was on the fucking phone with Technoblade!_

Running up to his room to put on much nicer presenting clothes, he listened to Technoblade to try and see if the Californian believed his stupid acting, “Of course, just letting you know I’m here. I’m assuming Sapnap will be joining you?”

Dream made it to the door that led to outside before turning around and focusing on Sap and Tommy, mouthing ‘I’LL CALL YOU WHEN I’M DONE WITH HIM’ before rushing out and hopping in the car, “Actually, I’m going to pick you up myself! Sapnap is still finishing setting up your room and stuff- the jerk never considered to wake me _up-_ so when I get you back here you can just pass out. Plane flights are hard.”

Dream felt bad about throwing his buddy under the bus, but when he heard Techno let out his familiar ‘heh’ of laughter, he relaxed a little bit. He heard Techno shuffle some stuff on his side of the call, “Sounds about right. Welp, I’m still just sitting here ready to go. Text me what sign you end up at.”

Dream nervously chuckled, “Sounds good! Super sorry about being late again, genuinely, I didn’t mean to-”

“Dream, I almost missed the flight here because I was dealing with another thing,” Techno jumped in, getting Dream to stop freaking out. “Maybe it’s a bad omen for this trip, but I’d just like to think it shows why the internet cares about our dumb rivalry.”

Dream finally buckled in his seat, feeling the most calm he had since Techno called him, “Right, we’re good at Minecraft and only sometimes smart. It’ll be good to see you, I’ll get there in 30 minutes tops.”

Techno made a noise of affirmation, “Same here. See you soon.”

_Blip._ Dream took his phone away from his ear to see that Techno hung up. Taking a deep breath, he laid it flat against his forehead to sort through his thoughts. Adjusting himself so he was sitting in the seat comfortably, he placed his phone in the phone holder before dialing Sapnap and pulling out of the driveway.

Sapnap picked up immediately, “ _Fuck_ Clay!”

Dream was on the road and put the car in drive, “I know Sap I know! I literally just calmed down so please don’t start screaming at me.”

Dream heard movement noises, and the next thing he knew, Tommy was talking to him, “You didn’t tell him I was here, right? 

Dream took one hand off the steering wheel to rub his left temple, “No, no I didn’t. Honestly, I think I was more panicking over the fact that I completely forgot about it, but now that you’ve spoken I just realized that the whole thing of the two of you being in the same house is going to be an issue, especially if you don’t want him to know you’re here.”

Dream could almost see in clear color how Tommy’s fingers were fidgeting in panic, “I mean- I could peace out now, you know? Find a plane ticket and live at the airport until the plane comes to-”

Sapnap objected before Dream could, “Tommy, no, we’re not sending you back when we have no idea if you’ll actually stay safe. You still haven’t told us why you jumped to America.”

Dream found his words, “Actually, the kid told me last night, which I planned to relay to you some of the details later today, but now it looks like I can’t. However, those details make me agree with Sapnap even more, I _know_ you won’t plan properly, and neither of us in good conscience can let you go, not until we can at least lessen some of those fears of yours.”

The silence was deafening, and Dream’s heart broke at the way Tommy sounded so _small,_ “... But I really don’t think I can talk to them yet.”

Dream felt bad for the kid, he really did, but he was at a total loss. There was no way they were sending the kid anywhere out of their sight- they didn’t trust anyone close enough to watch over him- but it’s not like they could send Techno back either. Not only did they really want him to visit, but Tommy also didn’t need more on his shoulders that he could consider being ‘his fault’.

That’s when Sapnap let out a valiant huff of laughter, “What if we just Dream SMP it?”

Dream blinked a few times while Tommy spoke for him, “Uh, what?”

Sapnap went on to explain quickly, “You know how Techno had to hide you from Dream when he came to visit? Well, let’s just do that! Tommy didn’t bring much with him, so there shouldn’t be a lot to physically hide in that area, and for Tommy himself we can just shove him somewhere and tell Techno ‘hey this is off-limits, sorry in advance.’ What do you guys think?”

More silence filled the line before Dream started grinning, “I mean, that sounds awesome, but I don’t know if you remember how I had to pretend I didn’t see him doing half his dumb shit to advance the plot, right? Tommy’s not the best at sitting still.”

Dream listened as Tommy sputtered, “Hey! I’m the bestest at sitting still! So good that I could sit in the living room and Techno would think you guys got a statue of me because I’m so awesome!”

Sapnap was giggling alongside Dream. Dream listened as his friend threw an arm around Tommy, getting ready to get into serious mode, “Sure thing, Toms, but let’s not risk it. Instead, let’s go set up the guest room for Techno and figure out where to put you afterward.”

Dream could feel Tommy nod his head rapidly, “Fuck yeah! Also, Dream, don’t tell Techno I said hi. Okay bye now!”

For the second time that day, Dream was hung up on. Once the call was completely finished, Dream leaned back into the soft seat he was driving in and smiled out the front window. This was going to be interesting, that was for sure.

Dream just hoped to God the kid truly was better at this in real-life situations than not.

Once he reached Orlando International he parked and texted Techno just like he said he would. He even got out of the car to lean on the side next to the sidewalk so Techno could see him more clearly. Techno came strolling out soon, noticing him pretty quickly. Dream sent a year-old picture of himself so the Californian had an idea of what he looked like and Techno did the same for Dream.

Dream’s smile was genuine, “Wassup dude!”

Techno had two rolling suitcases trailing behind him as well as a simple bag with one strap thrown around his shoulders, most likely his carry-on. The wheels got louder as he came closer, “Not much, just ready to pass out on a real chair or bed.”

Dream laughed as he grabbed the suitcases from Techno and went to unlock and open his trunk. Techno threw his carry-on in the back while Dream shoved the suitcases inside, “God do I feel that.”

The rest of the drive was a quiet affair. They didn’t talk for the most part outside of ideas on what they wanted to do on camera. Dream pointing things out to Technoblade with enthusiasm and Technoblade asking genuine questions about each of them was also a common occurrence. It wasn’t that long before they got back to Dream’s house despite it feeling like a thousand years to the Floridian.

“We’re here!” Dream said triumphantly.

Techno snorted as he got out of the car and moved to get his carry-on, “Wow, you’re really not homeless. Guess I owe Phil 20 bucks after all.”

Dream hid a wince at the mention of Philza by dramatically getting annoyed with Techno’s insistence at him not having a house, “See! The first thing I’m recording you doing is admitting you were wrong about this. It’ll make up for all the hurt and pain you’ve caused me.”

Techno rolled his eyes, shutting the door, “Whatever you say, Teletubby.” Dream squawked as he ran after Techno to let him into the house. He opened the door to see the lights were still on but with nobody waiting on the other side. 

Right as they stepped in and the door shut, they suddenly heard footsteps run from down the hallway. Out came a nearly-sprinting Sapnap, almost out of breath and bent over from the small workout he gave himself, “Hey Technoblade! We’re happy to have you here!”

Techno grinned at the man’s antics, “Happy to be here. Mind if I steal the toilet? Didn’t want to use the one at the airport and figured I could hold off.”

Sapnap stood straight up and pointed down the hall, “Sure thing. It’s the first door on your right.”

Techno nodded and slipped off his shoes, heading to the aforementioned bathroom and leaving the childhood friends to speak quietly with one another. Dream went first, “So? Everything good to go in Tommy land? Do you think Techno will suspect anything?”

Sapnap nodded, “Yep, everything is pretty good to go, chief!”

Dream felt himself only relax a little bit. He was going to be the judge of that.

One flush of the toilet later, Techno came back out to his two hosts, “Alright boys, where will I be sleeping in this fine establishment?”

Sapnap gestured to Dream, implying the older man was supposed to be in charge of the house tour. Pushing past them, he listened to their footsteps the whole time they made noise as they followed him to the door to the guest room. Dream took a deep breath and prepared himself to witness the ‘work’ Sap and Tommy did while he was gone. “Here’s your room!” he said, shoving the door open dramatically. From his first glance, it seemed like an unused room, so Dream was feeling optimistic.

The two rivals walked in, Dream trailing slightly behind Techno so the visitor could get a full view of his room. While Techno was looking away, Dream took the time to look at Sapnap for confirmation everything was working out. Instead, he got the sight of his friend still in the hallway with his head tilted back and his hands on his face. His pose screamed ‘oh god what have I done’ and before Dream could think about why, a thump had come from the closet, catching the attention of every man in the room.

Dream felt his eye twitch.

_Sapanp, did you seriously fucking hide Tommy in the closet of the ONE ROOM TECHNO WAS DEFINITELY GOING TO BE IN-_

As soon as Dream saw Techno potentially make his way over to the closet door, he grasped something out of thin air, “Sapnap! I told you not to stack the boxes in there like that!”

Thank God Sapnap was on top of it as well, “Well excuse _me,_ I’ve done that set up plenty of times before and it worked fine! You must have just jinxed it!”

Dream continued to shout back while he watched Techno purposefully ignore them to continue exploring the room out of the corner of his eye, “If jinxing means ‘was right about it failing horribly’ then yeah! I jinxed it to hell and back-”

“Um,” Techno eloquently interrupted. “What’s this?” 

Sapnap and Dream turned to look at the thing Techno was pointing at and immediately tried not to fall over. Fucking- it was Tommy’s _phone,_ with a Dreamwastaken phone case no less, laid on the bedside table charging. Both Sapnap and Dream felt the air leave their lungs, eyes bulging. 

Dream would like to know where he’s pulling these excuses from because he’s been told his ass is fucking flat, so they can’t be from there, “Aha! It’s a gag gift for George! Yeah, we’re going to put Dream and DNF fanart as backgrounds and stuff on it as well. April Fool’s is coming up pretty quickly, is it not?”

Techno’s eyebrow was already raised, and it only raised even more when Sapnap excitedly nodded his head in confirmation. Shaking his head and sighing, Techno took out a book from his carry-on to go and lay it on the room’s desk, but paused to shove the book under his arm and pick up a spiral journal laying on the desk, “‘Dumb Stupid Dumb Book Of Stupid Notes’... really? Whose is this?”

_Tommy’s doodle book_ they gave him on the second day so he could do whatever he wanted with it. Fuckity fuck fuck were they bad at this. Dream was no longer going to laugh at the canon scene of him rummaging through Techno’s house because this was _torture._ He was also officially burnt out, but before he could visibly panic about his lack of reasons, Sapnap shot forward and grabbed the journal from Techno’s hand, “The Math journal that I use for scratch paper, you found it!” He hugged the journal to his chest and whipped up the most precious smile of the day, “Thank you so much for finding this, even if Math sucks dick.”

Technoblade looked about as confused as they felt exhausted. It was a few seconds of awkward silence before Dream cleared his throat, “Sapnap, Techno here still has some suitcases in the trunk of the car, so if you could help him unload that would be great. I need to take a piss.”

The other two men took a second to register that before moving into action. Techno set his entire carry-on on the desk with the book he pulled out while Sapnap moved the journal to be in one of his hands, resting the now empty one on Techno’s shoulder, “Lead the way, Blood God, I’m here to listen to your every beck and call.”

Techno rolled his eyes as the two of them left the room, “Ah, so that’s going to be the energy for this trip. Good to know.”

Dream awkwardly grinned at them as they walked away, and once they were out of his sight he immediately turned to the closet and flung it open, having to move out of the way of a falling-forward-and-flat-onto-his-face Tommy. Dream was looking down at the kid with his hand on the doorknob, realizing that the thump from earlier was probably Tommy moving so he could peek out into the room to watch them.

Dream let out a huff of air, “So much for being better in real life than in the game, huh?”

Tommy turned to be laying on his back and grinning up at Dream, “Heh, sorry. Looks like I forgot that my phone really wasn’t in my pocket, huh?”

Dream rolled his eyes before running over to grab the kid’s phone and coming back and extending a hand to help him up. As soon as Tommy was on his feet, Dream was shoving the child to his room to shut the door shut, “Here’s your phone, and I really hate to make you stay in here, but unless you want to talk with Techno, I got no other option.”

Tommy saluted Dream cheerfully, “Naw, it’s totally fine. Just be sure to sneak me plates of food under the guise of needing to pee and we should be good.”

Dream let out one wheeze before slowly shutting the door, getting the last word in, “Okay, okay, sounds good, Tommy. Don’t forget to mute your phone!”

Then the door was shut, and Dream could take the biggest deep breath he’d ever taken in his life. He laid his forehead against the door gently, feeling accomplished and not looking like a total buffoon. Total one, he and Sapnap still looked dumb as fuck no matter how Dream wanted to spin it. Dream walked back out to the living room rubbing the back of his neck.

_Seriously, I can get the phone being forgotten, but how did they leave the journal so blatantly out in the open? I just-_

“-and that's when I said _No ma’am, we do not have those kinds of books here. You should probably try the internet instead._ ” Techno was finishing a punchline as he came back in the house, a laughing Sapnap in tow.

Sapnap was still laughing even after he got his shoes off, “Oh boy, I really hope she didn’t end up finding the internet in the end. I bet she imploded after not expecting what she was really getting.”

Dream watched the two converse as they walked past him to go and empty Techno’s suitcases in the guest room. Dream smiled before turning to the kitchen to make something for everyone.

Yeah, everything was going to be okay.

Techno and Sapnap eventually came out to the smell of food cooking in the kitchen. Their grins widened when they walked in to see Dream’s chef skills at work. They all sat and stood around the counter while talking and eating, the only thing interrupting their conversation being Dream kicking Sapnap in the shin and handing him a new plate of food. Techno didn’t see the kick, but he did see Sapnap look up at Dream with an almost offended glare.

Dream shrugged his shoulders with a fork in his mouth, “Just checking on you boo. You haven’t been to the bathroom recently like we have.”

It took Sapnap all of five seconds to realize what Dream was asking of him, “Oh shit, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m going to explode.” Sapnap picked up the plate and utensils before winking at Dream, “Thanks, babe.”

Then he was off, leaving Dream to deal with a confused Technoblade. All Dream could do was shrug once again as the Californian looked at him. Dream answered his stare as bluntly as possible, “He doesn’t trust me alone with his food anymore.”

Techno nodded once. He may have thought Sapnap was a little over the top, but he sympathized with the general idea regardless, “Ah, gotcha… You know, I hate to start this convo without him, but what’s the plan for tomorrow. House tour on camera? Maybe the boardwalk?”

Dream raised his eyebrows, “I mean, tomorrow we were thinking of no cameras and just doing some minor sight-seeing, but the house tour isn’t a bad idea.”

Techno blinked, “Um, doesn’t that break the definition of ‘first impression’ if we don’t record that, or am I missing something?” 

Dream leaned back against his counter and nibbled on his fork with no hands holding it, using it as an over-the-top toothpick like a cowboy would, “Well, we don’t have to go into great detail with pointing everything out, but we figured you would like getting a general sense of how the town is built. I mean, I would be super nervous if I had to travel to a place like San Francisco completely blind as well." He pulled the fork out and fidgeted with it using his thumb and pointer finger, "What the fans don’t know won’t hurt them, is what I’m saying.”

Techno blinked a few times before letting the most heartfelt smile cross his face, “Huh, thank you, Dream.”

All Dream could apparently do was shrug his shoulders tonight, seeing as he immediately went to that as his response to Techno’s sincerity. Honestly, the speedrunner couldn’t see what the big deal about it was, but it meant a lot to Techno, so he didn’t mind doing it.

Dream listened to the toilet flush, satisfied with how Sapnap played that off before freezing at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Before he could move and defend himself, Sapnap came up from behind him and yanked his hood up over his head, and pulled the cords so the hole was as small as it could be on Dream's face.

Dream swung an arm out to try and smack his friend but missed by a wide margin due to not being able to see him. Sapnap was giggling so hard he was clutching his stomach, and Dream yanked his hood back down to reveal his murderous glare. He pulled it off so fast the state he left his hair in did not do his attempt at looking angry any favors.

He laid his sight upon his dying-of-laughter friend, and before he let out a string of curse words that would cause Mother Teresa to faint on the spot, he saw Technoblade out of the corner of his eye. The Californian was leaning slightly back against the chair, eyebrows raised in both shock and amusement. The grin that tugged on his lips was small, but it was there nonetheless, and his wide eyes screamed _this is going to be fun_ both sarcastically and genuinely at the same time.

Dream couldn’t stop the tiny smile that came over himself as well.

It was going to work out.

(For all of five hours.)

\---

Tommy just wanted to say that he is a growing Big Man and that midnight snacks are very vital to that process.

So he can’t be at fault for life wanting to fuck him over. He was even very careful as to not wake Dream as he got out of his side of the bed. As he mindlessly made his way to the kitchen to ransack the cupboard, he was completely unaware of a pair of ears that were awake to hear him pad his way down the hallway. While those ears might not have cared about what he did, another pair of ears that were also secretly up using the bathroom cared very _much_ about who was walking toward the kitchen at 12 AM.

Once Tommy was in the kitchen, he was still in slightly-sleepy mode, so he missed the toilet flush. He was focused on the different types of crackers in the cabinet, so he missed the way the person quickly washed their hands in the sink before rushing out to confront the potential assailant in the house. When they made it to the kitchen themselves, they felt time practically stop as they realized who was pulling the Wheat Thins down from the highest shelf, “... Tommy? Is that you?”

Barely avoiding dropping the box, Tommy tensed up before setting it down and turning around to make eye contact with a shocked(?)appalled(?)scared(?)something Technoblade looking at him. Tommy was standing ramrod straight as he nervously laughed, rubbing the back of his neck and breaking that eye contact as soon as he could, “H-Hey Technoblade… Fancy seeing you here and all…”

Before Tommy could wonder if Techno’s brain broke, he felt the air leave his lungs as his idol whispered out, “Oh my God” before starting to _cry_ visible tears. Tommy had to blink a few times to make sure he was seeing what he was seeing. And if that wasn’t the weirdest thing, the next thing he knew he was being _gripped_ in a bone-crushing _hug_ by the dude.

The only thing Tommy could do in response was to slowly wrap his arms around Tehcnoblade’s shoulders, rubbing his back as he let the older man get his emotions out. Jesus, he was even _shaking,_ what, did he think he was looking at, a ghost?

Techno suddenly pulled back, keeping his hands on Tommy’s shoulders, “Holy shit, Toms, we thought you were _dead._ ”

Ah, so ‘thought he was dead’ it was. Wait… “Techno, who do you mean by ‘we’?”

The laugh that Techno let out was slightly mad, but in that way that said _oh my god I can’t believe it was that easy,_ “What do I mean? Tommy, Philza and Wilbur are about to burn down half of Britain. You haven’t answered any texts or DMs and- _fuck,_ now they’re going to feel shitty about Tubbo-”

That caught Tommy’s attention, “Wait, what did you do to him?”

Techno waved him off but still had a guilty look, “He mentioned to them how you texted him you were ‘taking a break’ and they got kinda, er, _concerned_ at how quickly Tubbo let that go.”

Tommy could feel a _dot dot dot_ pass over his brain, “Techno, I’ve done that with him before. He had no reason to assume anything was off, I _wanted_ it that way.”

Techno groaned, “Yes, I aggressively realize that now, but Toms… After Wilbur and Philza went to see your parents-”

Tommy jerked back, hitting the counter behind him, “My _parents?_ ”

The way Tommy got freaked at the mere _mention_ of the people that were supposed to care for him made Techno glare like never before, “Yes, those poor excuses of human beings were quite shocked when we found it downright _despicable_ to _kick your child out onto the streets!_ ”

“Techno _please,_ I don’t want to wake Sap or Dream up!” Tommy pleaded. His mind was still racing a mile a minute, and the last thing he needed was another person in the room with them.

Techno realized he was breathing rather heavily and took a second to calm down. Once he could speak at a more reasonable volume, Techno looked softly at Tommy, “I’m sorry, but I hope you understand we had a right to get that mad at them for this. Especially after they mentioned they cut your phone line a few days after shoving you out into the wild like the assholes they are, it’s like they _wanted_ you dead.” 

Oh, so that’s why he wasn’t getting anything after he texted Tubbo that night. Nobody _could_ send him anything, “Oh, that explains the lack of messages on the texting front.”

Techno blinked at Tommy’s comment, realizing there was more than one way of communicating, “Yeah, that explains _that,_ but what about Discord? Or emails? I would like to think Dream let you use his wifi, did he not?”

Tommy brought his shoulders up to his cheeks in a way a child being scolded would, “... I deleted them temporarily.”

Techno almost didn’t hear him, “... What?”

Tommy shook his shoulders to loosen them from the way he locked them up, “I said, I deleted them temporarily. I did so right before I texted Tubbo. That way I could just… pick myself back up without any outside factors.”

It was a few seconds before Techno started vehemently speaking. It was mainly from concern (and a little annoyance, he had been believing the kid might have been _dead_ but no he just deleted his forms of contact with everyone-), but Tommy’s exhausted and twisted brain didn’t pick up on that, “You- You _deleted_ them? Tommy, did you plan for one of us contacting you at all?”

“Well-”

“Did it never occur to you that _I_ would have no idea what was happening and would DM you wanting to hang or record? Get worried that you never responded and go to Wilbur, Phil, and Tubbo to ask what was up and if you were planning something?”

“I-”

“And then when they mentioned they hadn’t talked to you in a few days, their tunnel vision would go away, realize that lack of talking was a bad thing, and then would contact you like me and _also_ freak out over the lack of response? Maybe get concerned enough after Tubbo mentioning your text to head over to your biological spawners to check up on you, only to have the door be opened by the smuggest pieces of shit basically _happy_ that you might be dead on the streets?”

“That’s-”

“And _then_ they would scour half the county looking for you? With pictures and everything? Asking the homeless shelters if they had taken in a six-foot-tall blond kid recently? Tubbo anxiously waiting at home, praying that you would magically knock on his door at some point? Them keeping me constantly updated with the _lack of finding you_ that I was so nervous I almost missed my flight to here- and boy wouldn’t _that_ have been ironic? Wilbur in hysterics because he’s under the belief that he might have just basically had direct involvement in murdering his kid?”

“ _Techno-_ ”

“So why on God’s Green Earth would you think _getting rid of them_ would even be a remotely good idea-”

“Because I thought they hated me!” Fuck being quiet, Tommy was tired, and he was receiving ten different plot points all at once. He didn’t care if he was being a hypocrite like always, he needed to get something out before he popped like a balloon.

Techno had taken a step back as if Tommy had hit him, his eyes wide in disbelief, “Tommy… you don’t seriously think they would drop you after one fight, especially one Wilbur kinda started himself and left you no room to fight back, did you?” Ah, of course, they would blame themselves for everything and tell Techno about it that way. Wilbur and his dumb fucking victim complex, Jesus-

Goddammit, Tommy really didn’t want to cry again this week, but here he was, liquid streaming down his face once more, “I thought they finally got tired of annoying little old me. The views weren’t worth hearing me scream every week, so they cut it off before it could get worse for any of us. I would be lying if I said anything else.”

Tommy was looking at the floor to avoid Technoblade’s expression. Was it pity? Horror? Disgust at Tommy’s selfishness? Whatever it was, Tommy didn’t get to see, because Techno was once again wrapping his arms around Tommy, this time around his shoulders, much more gently and softly than before, “Jesus, Toms, your parents really did a number on you.”

The way Techno stated it as a fact broke Tommy, but not in a violent way. Tommy broke in a soft way this time, only able to bring his hands up to clutch at the front of Techno’s nightshirt and laugh once, “Yeah, Blade, I’ve been realizing that recently too.”

They stood in that position for a few seconds before a new voice cleared their throat from the hallway. They broke out of the hug to look at Sapnap leaning against the wall, staring at them fondly. Behind him was a Dream that was almost failing to stand upright and rubbing his eyes. Their best guess was that Sapnap woke him up for this, “Hey, I’ve had my Discord open while I’ve been working on some homework. I don’t mind if you want to use it so you can jump straight to calling your friends over the sea.”

Tommy and Techno glanced at one another before grins formed on their faces. Tommy was nervous, but Techno was assured, “That sounds fantastic, Sapnap. Thank you.”

Sapnap got off the wall to gesture with his arms down the hallway, “Well then, what are you waiting for?”

Technoblade held out his hand for Tommy to take as a sign that the kid really wanted to do this. He was clearly shaken, and tired, and mostly embarrassed, so Techno wasn’t going to enforce any plans just so he could immediately assuage his friend’s fears over in the U.K. Yeah, it sucked that they wouldn’t know right away, but they were finally asleep after nights of _not_ sleeping, so it’s not like they would know anyway.

But when he felt that tiny hand snake his way into his protective grip, he knew everything was going to turn out just fine in the end.

Dream and Sapnap stood outside the doorway as Tommy and Techno sat next to each other and formed a Discord call with Sapnap’s account, inviting Philza, Tubbo, and Wilbur, of course. Techno texted each of them to wake up and pick up the notification because it was _incredibely_ important that they did so.

Predictably, Wilbur was the first one, voice groggy after being woken up by a text notification as well as a Discord call, “Wha- Sapnap, this better be something funny about Technoblade visiting you otherwise I’m going to fly over there myself to drop kick you.”

It was only a few seconds of heavy breathing before Wilbur registered the tiny voice as very much _not_ Sapnap or Dream or even Technoblade for that matter, “... Wilbur?”

Dead silence filled the call before, “Oh my God- holy fucking shit- holy shit- fucking- just fucking- oh my _God._ ” It sounded like Wilbur was _sobbing_ right before he whispered as if this dream would go away the moment he was louder, “Toms? Is that really you?”

Tommy was too exhausted to fully cry, but his eyes definitely watered, “Ha, it sure is, Big Dubs. I’m sorry for worrying you.”

The laughter Wilbur was letting out sounded like the most beautiful thing Tommy had heard all week before Wilbur’s icon suddenly changed into a camera. Wilbur was on his phone, so it wasn’t the most stable recording, and his wild bed hair did no favors to the tears streaking down his cheeks, but goddammit if that smile didn’t make something in Tommy’s chest feel warm, “ _Fuck,_ Tommy, don’t worry about that right now, I just- can you turn on the camera? I perfectly understand if you don’t want to, but if you can- God, I just need to _see_ you.”

With a shaky hand, the blond reached over to the mouse to move the cursor to do what Wilbur asked of him. He, alongside Technoblade with Dream and Sapnap peeking in from the doorway, filled Wilbur’s screen. Tommy didn’t think the man’s grin could get any wider and yet, “Oh my God, _Tommy,_ you’re really _okay…_ ” Suddenly, his look got much more dark and self-deprecating, “Tommy I’m _so fucking sorry._ Every word of what I said was _bullshit_ and untrue and I could _never_ want you to stop being you, God- _fuck,_ I could’a handled that _so much better-_ ”

Meanwhile, the look on Tommy’s face was the opposite. When he first turned the camera on, he was unsure and scared, but as Wilbur continued to talk Tommy’s smile grew more and more in an attempt to break through to the brunette, “Wilbur Wilbur it’s _okay,_ I’m not dead and I see that you were just stressed before, I’m _fine,_ we can work this through _together_ now-”

Suddenly shutting both of them up was Philza joining the call, “God what is Technoblade planning-” That’s when he saw who was on the camera, “... Tommy?”

Tommy giggled, his elation levels off the charts, “Hey there Dadza, did you miss me?”

Before Phil could have his Wilbur-type breakdown, Tubbo’s icon appeared with everyone else, “Humana humana humana- holy _shit..._ Is that…”

Tommy felt the most energy he had the entire night, “Big Man! It’s good to see you!”

And here Tommy thought Wilbur’s sobbing was hysterical. Tommy was fully convinced the only reason Phil wasn’t doing any more than silently crying was that someone had to be the emotionally stable one. Just because Technoblade hadn’t cried anymore this night didn’t make him fit to referee everyone’s current emotional crisis.

The call went on for another hour or so, everyone’s cameras eventually turned on to display their tear-stained faces. Even Techno started back up again halfway through. They each got to tell their part of the story. Wilbur telling Tommy about his dead grandma (and both kids gasping and immediately giving their condolences, Wilbur somewhat waving them off but accepting it with gratitude nonetheless), Tommy mentioning the lack of returned contact being a mixture of him thinking they didn’t like him anymore and how they didn’t need to worry about his dumb problems (which just drove the sharpest spike through their chests, Wilbur and Philza instantly jumping to apologize again and saying how nothing like _this_ could ever be a ‘mild inconvenience’ and that they should plan on getting Tommy to talk to a professional about it, Tubbo laughing through his tears about how he was going to force Tommy to take a picture of himself and give a detailed summary every time he wanted to ‘take a break’ from now own, and that there was no Tubbo without Tommy, that if Tommy quit Youtube, Tubbo would be right behind him), and so and so forth.

What really got the conversation kicking was Dream and Sapnap’s involvement. When Tommy told them about how his first thought was to run to America and that he was super lucky it was Florida he ended up in, and even more lucky Dream was willing to take him in, Philza called out to them hiding in the hallway to come closer. They hesitated, but once he called them again they came up to stand next to Techno and Tommy, sandwiching them in their spots.

They heard Philza sigh, “Thank you two. Seriously.”

Both Dream and Sapnap glanced at each other over that. Sapnap was the first to speak, “Um, it wasn’t really anything, Mr. Minecraft, we just-”

Sapnap shut up when he heard Philza laugh, “Mates, I don’t think you understand the kind of people you are to just _take_ a child in and care for him like Tommy said you did. Not everyone would be willing to do that. _Fuck,_ not everyone in _our_ Youtube Community would be willing to do that I bet, so take the compliment for what it is. Thank you.”

Dream swallowed some spit that built up in his mouth, “Uh, no problem, but what I think Sapnap is saying is that it _shouldn’t_ be all that amazing, helping a kid in need and stuff.”

Wilbur rolled his eyes, “That alone is why you idiots need to shut up and take credit where credit is due. Even if it shouldn’t be ‘special’, it was still something Tommy needed at the time, so thank you.”

Tubbo jumped in with his version of thanks, “Dream to 20 million already he freakin deserves it! Woooooo!”

That was some much-needed laughter after everything. Once they said their goodbyes, once Techno promised to watch over Tommy like a hawk, once the three still in Britain promised to give Tommy the biggest fucking hugs when he got back to them, once they all said thank you to Sapnap and Dream again, the call was finally turned off, and the light in the future got all that much brighter.

For the rest of the night, Tommy slept in his original bed after Techno helped the other adults blow up an old air mattress for the Californian to sleep on. Once they were situated, Dream and Sapnap gave each other a fist bump, a chest bump, and then finished it off with a giant hug that had them aggressively pat one another on the back. It had been said a lot before, but Dream truly believed that _this_ night was the best sleep he had gotten, and he had been setting some pretty high bars recently.

The next day while Dream took Techno and Tommy out to a nearby arcade, Sapnap decided to stream for a little bit. Just some simple speedrunning and chatting with chat, nothing too exciting until about 20 minutes in. A very loud notification nearly blew up his ears, and because of it he barely managed to avoid accidentally jumping into the nearby ravine in response. He glanced over at his Twitch feed to see what happened.

**Ph1LzA gifted 100 subs!**

“Woaaah, give it up for Mr. Minecraft himself everybody!” Sapnap cheered, trying to keep the tone of his voice at a believable emotion. He knew exactly why Phil was doing this, however, nobody else did, obviously, so he had to play it off like it was a complete surprise but that he also was still a Professional Streamer. That was also speedrunning and needed to focus, “Thanks a whole lot dude. Even though you probably have just piles of dough laying around after making this wonderful game, it still means a lot that you-”

The noise dinged in his ears again, somehow making him jump even more than last time. His character jerked straight to the side and off into a lava pit, and before Sap knew it, the **You Died!** screen filled his vision with a wonderful **Sapnap tried swimming in lava** death notif at the bottom. Sapnap glanced over at his Twitch feed yet again.

**Ph1LzA gifted 100 subs!**

Sapnap stared at his screen for a solid few seconds before groaning and tipping his head back, forcing his chair to lean to accommodate the different posture. He really wasn’t too upset about losing, but there was something to be said about comedic effect. Everyone watching his stream would notice his obviously quieter voice due to not being right next to his microphone, “Philzaaaaaa whyyyyyyyyyy.”

(Across the ocean, a man in his thirties could be heard laughing maniacally at his computer.)

Meanwhile about ten minutes away from the streamer was a group of three friends trying and failing to play Wheel of Fortune, already having gotten the final answer wrong twice.

“Tommy I swear to god,” Techno pleaded practically. “ _R. L. STINE._ R and L and S and T and N and E are the most common letters just _pick one!_ ”

Tommy was on the verge of crying from laughter, “C’mon, big man, I got a feeling this time Z will work! Third time’s the charm, am I right?”

Dream keeled over wheezing as Techno dramatically droned out _“Noooooo”_ at Tommy reaching for the Z button yet again. As Dream was clutching his stomach, he felt his phone start to vibrate rapidly. Standing up straight and wiping a tear out of his eye, the man blinked as he noticed he wasn’t actually being called.

His Twitter was blowing up, and for a brief moment he worried he did something to piss it off again, but opening his notifications, he widened his eyes at a familiar musician mentioning him in a tweet.

**Wilbur Soot @WilburSoot • 4 min**  
_Do you guys still have yet to listen to @Dream‘s "Roadtrip"? Well what are you waiting for, it’s right here!_

The rest of the tweet simply consisted of a link to Dream’s Youtube video of his song. He zoned out the two Sleepy Bois to smile at his phone. Leave it to Wilbur to find the simplest of ways to say thank you that felt like he moved a literal mountain for the American. Here Dream thought the brunette singing it on stream was more than enough.

And, well, if he wanted to let Twitter go ham over him simply liking the message and adding on a simple “pogchamp” in the comments, then that’s nobody’s business but his own.

\---

The energy at the airport the next day was lighthearted yet still sad.

They knew they had to send the kid back at some point, really, but that didn’t stop them from picturing the adoption papers in their head all the same. Instead, they would settle for second-best: hoping either Wilbur or Philza would give them joint custody of the kid.

Yep, once Tommy got to the airport back home, Wil and Phil would be there to pick him up, and on the way back to one of their places they would decide who would take him in, possibly visiting Tubbo in the process. Dream knew it would boil down to them, after all, who would have expected anything less?

There was still a few minutes before Tommy had to board, so that gave each Technoblade, Sapnap, and Dream time to give him all the hair ruffles and shoulder and back pats and hugs for the next couple of years. Technoblade was the first one, going for the simple quick hug with a singular pat on the back before pulling away and laying his hand on the top of the kid’s head to look him in the eye, “You know, next time you need to run to America, just come to California. It’s much cooler and less swampy and- shhh ignore them in the back they know I’m right.”

Tommy couldn’t stop the giggles that came from watching Sap and Dream object to the slander of their wonderful state, “Sounds good, Blade. I’ll take it into consideration.” The last thing to happen was Techno ruffling the mop of curls before going away and letting Sapnap get in his goodbye.

Now the man might have been shorter but that didn’t stop him from swooping in and wrapping his arms around Tommy’s waist, picking him up and twirling him around once. Tommy was full-on laughing by the time Sapnap set him down, and the next thing he knew, Sapnap placed a hand on his shoulder and shoved the other into his pocket, “This week has been fun, Toms, we need to do it again sometime. With less dire circumstances, of course.”

Tommy nodded his head, “Obviously.”

Sapnap’s smiled widened, and the next thing Tommy knew was that Sap pulled something out of his pocket. His fist was closed over it, so Tommy couldn’t see what it was. With slight apprehension, Tommy eventually held his hand out for Sapnap to deposit the item. The man promptly did so, “Here, something to remember me by.”

Sapnap started walking away immediately once he released the gift. Tommy blinked a few times at the very small bic lighter now in his possession. He looked up at Sapnap in confusion, but the man kept walking even as Tommy voiced his concerns, “Uh, Sapnap? Aren’t these technically illegal in these buildings? Helloooo?”

Before he could continue, Dream came up to him, shutting him up completely. Dream grinned at the kid, and the next thing either of them knew, Dream was wrapping him in the softest hug of the day. Tommy took a second to wrap his arms back around the older man, but he did eventually, causing Dream to move his chin to lay on the top of his head.

Dream chose his words very carefully, “George is going to be so upset he’s no longer the coolest British person I know.”

Dream ignored the way Tommy got choked up at that, “Ha, if he wants to duel to the death let him know. I’ll kick his ass.”

**Now boarding to Brighton City Airport. Now boarding to Brighton City Airport.**

Dream and Tommy split, the kid immediately bending over to pick up and sling his gym bag of stuff around his shoulders. Once he was situated, he sent a nod to Dream, to which the man smiled in response, before turning around and getting in line. Once he was in and had his ticket in his hand, he turned back to look at all his friends one more time. They were all grinning happily and waving goodbye at different speeds, Sapnap the most rapid out of all of them by a wide margin.

“Here’s hoping you don’t crash!” Sapnap yelled out before getting hit upside the head by Techno. The last thing Tommy saw was Dream wheeze-laughing before handing his ticket to the nice lady and getting on his flight home. He was quick in putting his bag in the upper cupboard and sitting down. He wanted to just sit and vibe for as long as possible. Just because most things were solved didn’t mean it was going to be perfect. There’s still the topic of how he was going to deal with the after-effects of his abuse and trauma and such.

But it was going to be okay. He had an amazing family to help him out.

Tommy took out his phone and plugged in the spare earbuds Sapnap lent to him and immediately scrolled down to the exact song he wanted to listen to. He clicked the familiar name and felt as the beat entered his ears and overtook his mind.

_Now that interstate is paved with memories  
Of a past life I lived when I was 18  
And every winter I think back to what we used to be  
In that past life we lived at 18_

Tommy took a deep breath and looked out the window to enjoy the scenery of the tropical ocean they were flying over.

He had such an amazing family.

**Author's Note:**

> 40 plus fucking pages and this thing is done wooooooo- i swear the next thing im actually going to work on is dbmiyd(lttwc) but this idea grabbed my ankle and i wanted to write it before anyone else did lmao
> 
> didnt have a beta, just wanted to get this bad boy out for that sweet sweet validation, so if anything particularly bad shows up please let me know kindly so i can fix it <3
> 
> If you wish to scream at me here's my [tumblr](https://halorocks1214.tumblr.com/)


End file.
